


Finding Your Land Legs

by aurilly



Category: Lost
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-21
Updated: 2009-08-21
Packaged: 2017-10-02 19:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurilly/pseuds/aurilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Desmond tries to settle into life back in the real world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding Your Land Legs

It took them three weeks to reach Australia. During that time, they heard practically no news from the outside world. This was a result of being on the open water, and also spending most of the time below decks in Penny's cabin. Desmond felt as though he'd barely learned the crew members' names before they were all saying goodbye and Penny was paying them exorbitant sums of hush money.

The crew had kept _The Searcher_ in beautiful shape, and they were able to get a good price for it within an hour of their arrival---not that money was an issue. Desmond was too busy enjoying the sight of buildings along the shoreline, strangers milling about, commerce, and all the general signs of civilization to notice. The man with whom Penny bartered tried not to stare as Desmond, off to the side, did his best not to burst into tears of joy.

"Can we go to a restaurant?" he asked her desperately. "And order something very perishable."

“Yes, of course.” She’d been understanding about the new set of neuroses and desires he’d picked up over the past three years. Penny had been understanding about all of it, although he sometimes caught her looking at him askance out of the corner of her eye. Desmond sometimes wondered… Would she have believed him if he hadn’t come with six other people spouting the same claptrap? Strength in numbers, and all that. To be honest, the others had been on the island for only a few months, and yet the things Sayid had whispered to him during those days on the freighter, and the things that Desmond knew Hurley had whispered to Penny while on _The Searcher_ (Kate, Sun, and Jack had said little) were infinitely more impossible---if that, indeed, were possible---than what had happened to him. Compared to them, he was the sane one.

When Desmond had told Jack that he'd be fine as long as he had Penny, he hadn't been lying. And yet, after the departure of his friends, Desmond had found himself adrift in more ways than one. Between the mad phone call, his new sense of paranoia and the visions, he himself wondered if he had actually gone mad and imagined all of it. Thankfully, Sayid and the others hadn't seemed to think so. That knowledge, and the certainty that those people believed in him and had shared some of the same experiences had been Desmond's rock during those last few weeks. Sometimes he wondered if it had all been a bad dream. Part of him wanted it to be, but part of him was sane enough not to want to be haunted by something that hadn't happened. Now his friends were gone, taking the truth with them. Except for the fact that he was going to live indefinitely on the high seas, it was as if they had never existed and nothing had ever happened.

After buying Desmond some new clothes ("Didn't they have any shirts with proper buttons for you? I'm sure you were fighting the women off with a stick… you _were_, weren't you?" Penny had asked), they went to a kind of sports bar restaurant. Desmond wasn't yet ready for a formal experience.

As he moaned and groaned in bliss over his paella, he and Penny watched the television overhead.

"It's been so long since I watched the telly," she sighed, and then stopped herself to look at him. "You, too."

"Yeah," he replied, and realized that perhaps there were some things he hadn't missed. "Hang on a minute…"

"It's Jack!" Penny breathed softly.

Sure enough, there was a piece on the Oceanic Six on the BBC World News. Pictures of all six of their friends flashed across the screen. Jack was the resident hero, Sun was back in Korea but had by now been forced to admit her pregnancy, Kate was out on bail with Aaron, and Hurley was shown waving with his parents from Disneyland, and Sayid had joyfully reunited with Nadia.

The news show replayed their press conference with all the lies and hugs. It was all very surreal to see them like that, properly dressed, with money, with families, with fame. Desmond felt even more alone: there they were, his only tether to the realities of that horrible time, and even they were pretending it hadn't happened and that they didn't know him. Desmond knew that's what they were planning, and he'd agreed, but to see it playing out was almost too much.

Penny watched Desmond as he watched the television. "Des?"

He kept watching, and then had a flash. _Nadia… Sayid… the street… another man… Nadia bleeding…_

"Des, are you alright?" Penny's voice sounded farther and farther away.

It was horrible. Desmond tried to think of ways to get around it. He could call Sayid and warn him, or try to find the man, or the driver… But Desmond had learned his lesson with Charlie. If Nadia was to die, there was nothing Desmond could or should do about it. Why infuse their little time together with fear and sadness?

"Not really," he finally replied.


End file.
